I first began to
work with Les Paul some years back, I was working on producing a
two hour segment of a huge
Guitar Festival that Eric Clapton
was producing, and a friend in the organization knew I knew the
old timers and asked me to round up some. After the idea
and vision of the Pioneer Troubadour project came to me, it was
as if I had a
predictive dialer, I knew one of
the first people I called was Les Paul. He told me to tell
Eric that he had a gig that weekend and that he can make it, but
that he wants to sign and donate a Les Paul Gibson guitar to his
Crossroads Foundation." I asked him then, "Hey then Less,
can we make you an Honorary Pioneer Troubadour...and he said,
You darn betchya.

We went on to meet
up some months later in Vegas at the CES show, and I recorded
him for the Pioneer Troubadour DVD, which is some of the footage
above, which we recorded at about 1 a.m. on the Gibson Guitar
Bus. Around 2 a.m. we recorded him telling me some things
he wanted folks to know for my
documentary on Jimmie Rodgers.
That is another Les Paul saga itself...

Merle is also part of the projectwith
the song "Troubadour" that he penned some years back. I was on
the road with Haggard and Bob Dylan, shooting most of the 39
show
tour, and in some city after the show Merle was shooting
pull and we were talking, and I mentioned Les Paul. Merle
looked at me shocked,

and said, "You know
Les Paul?" I looked at Hag and said, "You don't?" in
a kinda disbelief.

Merle told me that itwould
be such a great honor for him to meet Les Paul. So on the road
to New York I began calling Mr.Paul
to set up the meeting. Merle said he would love to go down and
meet Les and hear him performat
theIridium
Jazz Club(1650
Broadway),where
Les plays every Monday night.Right after Merle
got off stage opening for Bob Dylan at the Beacon Theater on
Broadway, we had a limo there to take him down to the club,
where the two legends met (pic I took to the right). Later
Hag got on the stage and played two songs...Merle
and Les played "Trouble in Mind" and "Pennies From Heaven." The
audience went wild. One could see the mutual admiration that
Les Paul and Haggard, and that a long friendship had its
beginning. Later that night Hag took me by the shoulders
and looked at me and said, "This is the most important thing
that has happened to me in my career." wow

T

he
next night Les came to see
Haggard and Dylan show and they bonded further.

I had Les Paul tied into the Festival, and in
fact just had talked to him some a few weeks ago, and made a tape of
the recording, which I would do when we would talk on the phone, he and I would talk about Jimmie Rodgers and Slim
Bryant. MORE ON SLIM AND LES LATER...I told Les that we wanted have him part of the festival, and that we would have a camera and tech crew at his club
gig on the regular Monday night, and we were going to patch him into
the Festival via the Internet and give him

an award and show it on a screen at the
festival. He was excited to try the new technology and be part
of the Festival

I got a email and txt when I woke up this
morning from Kenny Lewis, friend that plays guitar for the Steve
Miller Band...that Les had passed away...couple of other emails
are below, and a list of phone calls from friends telling me
sorry made me realize how fortunate I was to have him as a
friend, to have his trust and stories to tell, and the times
spent with him...

I'm sending your quote on Les to a
good friend of mine, a producer who was working with Les until
his illness and a good friend of Mr. Paul. He will love your
heart through your meaningful words. I was intending to send him
an email with my thoughts as well that are, “Genius whose
influence and impact on music will never be usurped, rest in
peace, gone but never to be forgotten.” I know this is a blow to
u bro. dan

Ben: This was a quote from a friend in NY."thanks
Les Paul for guitars so sweet they can make you cry while
listening to them or playing them and so heavy they can break
your ears, your skull or your toe! RIP

I'm truly sorry for your loss, as I
know in talking with you, how close you were to him, and the
big plans you had in wanting to do the documentary. If there is anything i can do to
help, all you need do is pick up that phone buddy.

Richard

This is a sketch that
my sister

is doing for the
Pioneer

Troubadour project

Les
Paul

Les Paul, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer,
five-time Grammy Award winner, pioneer of the electric guitar and
inventor of numerous recording techniques, such as reverb and
multi-track recording was born June 9, 1915 in Waukesha Wisconsin. As
The Gibson Les Paul line of guitars is universally hailed as the best
and is played by legendary musicians, Iridium has been the host to
countless musicians and celebrities who pay homage to "The Father Of The
Electric Guitar". Musicians such as, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards,
Tony Bennett, Paul Schaeffer, Steve Miller, Brian Setzer, Joe Beck, Al
Dimeola, George Benson and many others have "jammed" with Les on Monday
nights at Iridium. You never know who will show up at Iridium to jam and
joke with Les and the band!

Les says his greatest God-given gifts
are perfect pitch, a love for music with the ability to learn it
quickly, and the curiosity and persistence of an inventor who wants to
know "how things tick". His first professional job, as "Red Hot Red",
was as a guitarist and harmonica player when he was just thirteen. One
fateful night while performing in front of an outdoor crowd, Les became
frustrated that people farther back couldn’t hear him. Les Paul created
an electric guitar and amplification system out a radio, the earpiece of
a telephone and a needle from a family record player that he jammed into
the fret board as a "pickup"! Les?guitar and voice were now heard by
all. However, the resulting vibration and resulting feedback had to be
contained. Les experimented by stuffing clothes and plaster of paris in
the guitar; he even went so far as attaching a string to a hinge placed
at the end of a railroad track. The sound was perfect. When Les showed his
mother his accomplishment she replied, "You’ll never see Gene carrying
that thing around". So he settled on using a 4x4 block of wood attached
to an Epiphone neck. When the audience paid no attention to his playing
because the instrument was too strange, he attaches two non-functional
"wings" to the 4x4 so it looked like a normal guitar. The fans loved the
sound and the solid body electric guitar was born! In 1950, Les started
his design of the Les Paul model for The Gibson Guitar Company, which
has become the world’s best selling line of electric guitars.

Les’ life long interest and ground
breaking work in the recording studio resulted from a need to develop
his own unique style. One night, Les’ mother commented that she heard
him on the radio. Apparently she had heard someone else who was copying
his style! Les became determined over the next two years to develop his
own unique sound. The result of hundreds of multiple-disc recording
experiments, some with delay, reverb, echo and other electronic
techniques, revolutionized the recording industry and immediately led to
a contract with Capitol Records. A string of top ten hits followed with
his wife Mary Ford, the most famous one being "How High The Moon".

Soon Les Paul and Mary Ford were the
stars of their own television show, The Les Paul and Mary Ford at home
show, which was a top rated hit and ran from 1953 to 1960 and they
became international stars!

Les Paul’s pioneering work with tape
recording led to some of his most important contributions to recorded
music. This again grew out of necessity. Les Paul had been talking to
his friend, Bing Crosby about the need to develop a tape recorder that
would give musicians the freedom of recording anywhere. Les found such a
product and then began tinkering with it. One result of his
experimentation was the development of sound on sound recording. This
was accomplished with an additional recording head. No more was a studio
needed for him and Mary- they could record anywhere! To solve the
problem of recording with other musicians who were not present, Les
conceived the idea of recording on eight separate tracks then blending
them together. This is but a small sampling of the diverse and legendary
career Les has enjoyed and his role as one of the most important figures
in twentieth century music!

Les Paul, multiple Grammy Winner, Rock
and Roll Hall of Famer, and idol and legend to millions, plays every
Monday night at Iridium! Set times are at 8:00 and 10:00, and Les gladly
signs autographs and chats after every show! www.njinvent.njit.edu

Les Paul "The Wizard
of Waukesha"

Lester William was born in Waukesha,
Wisconsin on June 9, 1915 to parents George and Evelyn (Stutz) Polsfuss.
Les' mother was related to the Stutz Bearcat automobile and Blatz beer
people. Les says his greatest God-given gifts are perfect pitch, a love
for music with the ability to learn it quickly, and the curiosity and
persistence of an inventor who wants to know "how things tick". His
first professional job, as "Red Hot Red," was as a guitarist and
harmonica player when he was just thirteen. One fateful night, while
playing to an outdoor crowd, a listener in the back complained that Les'
voice could not be heard. To accommodate those farthest away, Les
attached his mother's radio to the family's telephone mouthpiece
creating a public address system. Again a critic voiced that his guitar
could not be heard. So Les "borrowed" his father's radio, the other end
of the telephone, and the needle from the family record player. Jamming
the needle into the guitar bridge and joining the other components, Les'
guitar and voice were now heard by all. Les actually created a stereo
system, however with some feedback and acoustic vibrations. Les
experimented by stuffing clothes and plaster of paris in the guitar to
dampen the unwanted acoustic vibrations. The plaster worked but the
guitar was too heavy! His final experiment was attaching a guitar string
to a hinge placed at the end of a railroad track. The sound was perfect.
When Les showed his mother his accomplishment she replied, "You'll never
see Gene Autry (the most popular singing cowboy at the time), carrying
that thing around". So he settled on using a 4x4 block of wood attached
to an Epiphone neck. When the audience paid no attention to his playing
because the instrument was too strange, he realized that "people hear
with their eyes." To compensate for this Les attached two non-functional
"wings" to the 4x4 so it looked like a normal guitar. The fans loved the
sound! Les has donated his first practical solid-body electric guitar
(1941), to The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee where
it is on permanent display. Les' solid-body electric guitar concept,
however, was not appreciated by guitar makers until one was successfully
marketed by a California neighbor, Leo Fender who was into electronics.
Then the Gibson Guitar Company contacted Les who was called "the guy
with the pickups on the broom handle."

Les applied for his first patent, "Combined Bridge and Tailpiece for
Stringed Instruments", on July 9, 1952, a one pickup design which was
granted on March 13, 1956, #2,737,842. A patent filed by Gibson
president, the late Theodore M. McCarty, on Jan. 21, 1953, "Stringed
Musical Instrument of the Guitar Type And Combined Bridge And Tailpiece
Therefore", was granted on Aug. 2, 1955, #2,714,326. This two pick-up
design appears to be the basis of the Les Paul model guitars in which
Les says he had much input.

Back in 1946, Les' mother commented that
she heard him on the radio on a particular night. Les explained that it
wasn't him as he was on stage playing back-up guitar with the Andrew
Sisters. Apparently someone was copying his style. Les was so dejected
that someone could copy him good enough to fool his mother that he quit
the Andrew Sisters and devoted the
next two years in secret experiments toward developing his unique sound.
Hundreds of multiple-disc recording experiments, some with delay,
reverb, echo and other electronic techniques, were made. Then at a party
one night he quietly slipped in his new recording of "Lover" (1948).
History again was made, and a contract with Capitol Records quickly
followed. Capitol asked Les what this new sound should be called. Les
keeping it simple, said "The New Sound", and that's how his records were
marketed! After World War II, a Newark, New Jersey electronics engineer,
Colonel Richard Ranger, showed Les a tape recorder which he located in a
German military electronics laboratory. Les then informed Bing Crosby of
the machine since Bing wanted to record away from the studio and have
more time to play golf. When Les assured Crosby that the device would
work, Bing said he wanted 50. The Rangertone Electronics Company could
not mass-produce the recorders fast enough so the idea was submitted to
the Ampex Corporation. Bing Crosby put up the capital and gave one
recorder to Les. On the road to Chicago with Mary Ford (nee Colleen
Summers) and the new recorder, Les thought that if he could put in one
additional recording head he could do sound-on-sound recordings
anywhere. So Les called Ampex and said he burned out the recording head
and could they send another. The additional head was installed by a
machinist named Mr. Goodspeed and it worked on first try. No more was a
studio needed for him and Mary. Then to solve the problem of recording
with other musicians who were not present, Les conceived the idea of
recording on eight separate tracks then blending them together. He
consulted Ampex again (1952) and they agreed to build him one at his
cost. Les did not seek a patent on this concept or the "Sel-Sync" idea
(1956-60), which made the now-famous multi-track possible. On Jan. 30,
1962 Les was granted patent # 3,018,680, "Electrical Musical
Instrument", and on Apr. 3, 1973, # 3,725,561 "Method of Electrically
Reproducing Music and Improved Electrical Pickup for Practicing the
Same". Both were for improved pickups. He is presently working on ten
electronic pickup modifications, in as many guitars, chasing after his
quest of "the perfect sound." Not bad for a "tinkerer" wouldn't you say?
Les was inducted into the New Jersey Inventor's Hall of Fame in 1996. On
February 20th 2001, Les received his 5th Grammy, for his technical
achievements, from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.